Previously unknown manuscript of Marco Polo’s account. Estimate: £200,000-300,000. Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's

LONDON.- Sotheby's London announced that it will offer in its sale of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures on Wednesday, 3 December, 2008, a previously unknown manuscript of Marco Polo’s account. Marco Polo, the most famous and popular of all mediaeval western travellers to the East, travelled from Europe through the Middle East into Central Asia and China – along the Silk Road – in the 13th century to meet Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, in his pleasure palace in Xanadu. Dating to the 14th century, the account is one of the last remaining copies in private hands and is estimated at £200,000-300,000.

Only six manuscripts of Marco Polo’s account have appeared on the market in the last century, and none since that sold by Sotheby’s in 1930. It is most likely that the present manuscript was copied from a selection of manuscripts in the library of Glastonbury Abbey which are now almost completely lost or destroyed, and contains three sections covering British history, Near and Far Eastern History and prophecies, including the epic travel account of Marco Polo which contains all three books of his wide travels.